The news of the day is that Shane Sugino has joined the Pack, spearheading Bluewolf’s Higher Education practice as Director of Higher Education. Shane will oversee Bluewolf’s global go-to market strategy and drive constituent engagement with the cloud (read the full press release). Needless to say, Shane’s addition is tremendously exciting, as it marks Bluewolf's next step to incisively drive cloud-adoption in the higher education sector.

I sat down with Shane to get his point of view on opportunities at the intersection of higher ed and cloud platforms, his personal experience in each space, and what he deems to be “higher education nirvana.”

BG: Shane, great to chat with you. Can you speak a little about your experience and what drew you to higher education and cloud?

SS: I spent the last six years working with Salesforce in the higher ed space. At Kellogg, I was actually a salesforce.com client — my role was to lead and design Salesforce implementation at Northwestern University, and that included working with consultants to build business processes in alumni organizations. It was essential to build collaboration and to enable transparency with important alumni. And then, at Enrollment Rx, I worked on providing suite of solutions across the student lifecycle, including recruiting, enrollment pipeline, online apps, portals, and so forth. I’m really looking forward to take my client operational expertise to help Bluewolf grow our practice in higher ed.

BG: What do you think are the biggest opportunities right now for Higher Ed with Salesforce?

SS: I think it comes down to a common theme: the student lifecycle. The ultimate goal is for an institution to use one instance of Salesforce across their entire lifecycle: from admission, enrollment, registration, career services, alumni management, and back again to fundraising. That would be the “holy grail." Imagine reaching out to a notable alumus for a donation, and having information into their life on campus as a student: what groups they were a part of, what jobs they were looking for, what classes they took — imagine having that at your fingertips. You could craft your interaction with the personal story of each donor. That’s higher education nirvana. And nobody’s done that before. 

BG: Could you walk us through your role at Bluewolf?

SS: I’ll be directing our Higher Ed practice, defining Bluewolf’s go-to market strategy, and enabling sales and implementation teams to deliver the best possible solutions to institutions. I will also be managing partnerships with salesforce.com’s Foundation and ecosystem partners.

BG: What made you decide that you wanted to join the Bluewolf pack?

SS: What I like about Bluewolf: global reach, combined with an entrepreneurial culture. It's an organization that's not afraid to take risks, and always willing to tackle novel and innovative things. It’s hard to be both global and nimble, but Bluewolf is just that. That’s why I joined. Bluewolf has a strong brand, and long history of success in problem solving, and I want to deliver that to the Higher Ed space.

BG: What is your first priority to tackle at Bluewolf? 

SS: This week I am traveling to salesforce.com’s Higher Ed Summit in Tempe, Arizona and will introduce a number of customer sessions. After that, it is my hope to quickly connect with clients and prospects to start discussing the impact that cloud technologies can have on their student and constituent needs.    

Read the full press release, or visit Shane Sugino’s Pack Profile.

Looking to deliver an integrated experience — from recruiting and enrollment, to student services and advancement — across your entire institution? Sign up for a free Bluewolf Higher Ed Strategy Session.